Molly Hollihan

Sunday, June 28, 2009 –

Malcolm Gladwell’s keynote: Excellent references to Fleetwood Mac
Implications for teaching and learning:
· 10,000 hours/10 years for greatness; experimentation can bring greatness
· Maybe building on failure isn’t that bad of a deal; examples of NFL quarterbacks with low quarterback IQ scores; entrepreneurs with disabilities (30%!). When people have much to overcome, greatness can occur. A bit revolutionary notion that small class sizes aren’t the answer.


Monday, June 29, 2009 –

à Hammer and Nails: Building Leadership and Vision for 21 Century
· Dry.
· Pushing the idea of coaching to enhance leadership.
· William Bridges Transitions as Change Theory (the four Ps – Purpose, picture, plan, parts)
· Goldman’s leadership styles (from Primal Leadership) commanding, pace-setting, democratic, affiliative, coaching, and visionary
· Appreciative Inquiry – 4 Ds, discovery, dream, design, destiny.
· Nothing new or different here.


à Hello? Cell phones as teaching tools?
Tammy Worchester
http://www.tammyworcester.com/TWHandouts/TW_Handouts/Entries/2008/10/31_Cell_Phones_in_%28and_out_of%29_the_Classroom.html

Tons of great ideas for cell phones… have students do podcasting from their phones; upload pictures to Flickr on a fieldtrip; even how to use Google to text back answers to questions.

Ramifications: students can do more with cell phones than I had ever imagined. Philosophically we need to decide if we are going to try to use cell phones as an educational tool rather than ban them or if we should embrace them. This session definitely indicates that cell phones are powerful, powerful tools. Regardless of whether we officially allow cell phones in school, the students can (and are!) using them in unique and creative ways that we should be aware of.

à Teaching the Digital Generation: Understanding Digital Kids

This session contained essential information for how we need to teach students whose brains are indeed wired differently than ours.

So much here… sign up for http://www.committedsardine.com/ for resources. Can also write to Lee Crockett at leecrockett@mac.com and tell him I need to be committed.

Books to order: Brain Rules; Everything Bad is Good for You; This is the Brain that Changes; Grown Up Digital; iBrain

We need to do more with linking visual images to text… the numbers are staggering about how students process and remember visual images. Even color makes a difference (red/pink; neon green, burnt orange). Students read in an F pattern. Intensive, sustained, progressive challenge (like the best video games… can we do this in the classroom?). These kids are screenagers with hyperlinked minds. How can we best engage them knowing this about their brains???

à Media Literacy in an Age of Wikilobbying, Spin, and Photoshopping

Tons of examples of how students are subjected to a different version of reality. Used cnn.com to show prevalence of celebrity gossip rather than news. Showed some of the Dove commercials to show how images of beauty are computerized and reformed. The main idea is that we need to create lessons to teach students to be better discerners of information given the ease with which reality is altered.